Elegant Business Card Design Tips
Posted on February 15, 2018 by Logo Design Tips and Tricks
Networking is the bread and butter of connecting with potential new clients; it’s one of the quickest and most effective ways to build up your contacts. Having a quality business card and giving it out to your new contacts can be the perfect finishing touch, but most people don’t know where to start on creating their own business card.
Elegant business card design tips are few and far between online, so we decided to create this article to give you all the information you need in one place to get started on your own business card design.
This article will take you through all of the steps from:
- Keeping your business card minimal
- How to leverage social
- Building your brand into your business card
- And much more
Tie back your hair, and hold onto your hat, let’s get started!
Why Are These Elegant Business Card Design Tips Important?
First impressions last, and in-person meetings can be a really powerful way to get new clients or new contacts for your industry. Research also shows that closing rates for in-person meetings are 40%, with that in mind having a great business card design can really help to improve your odds of closing.
Our Top 7 Elegant Business Card Design Tips
To help you get the best elegant business card design tips, we’ve broken down our seven favorite ways to get the most out of your business card designs.
1. Keeping It Minimal
Stripped back business cards are the big trend for 2018. Don’t tempt yourself to bombard your card with a mountain of information but the problem with that, as with anything, is information overload.
You want to be thinking about your brand message and what you want to say. Remember because you’ll have given the person the business card in person, they will already know what you’re about and what you do, you don’t need to repeat that here.
Think of your business card as a call-to-action; you want the person you’re giving the card, to take action.
What action do you want them to take?
It may depend on what kind of person you’re giving the card to which leads us to our second elegant business card design tips.
2. Have Different Designs for Different People
There are some incredible designs of business cards out their online which can give you some real ideas on what to design your card like. It’s important to remember though that you may need a different message depending on the person you are giving the business card too.
Our second elegant business card design tips focus on designing different cards for different reasons. You may want to build a design for customers that showcases your brand’s identity and gets them to your website.
A design for a supplier or marketing firm may be more business-like in design, and you can focus on what value you can provide them.
Think about what value your business card can present for the person you’ll give it out too.
3. Using Social Media Effectively
Everybody these days is on every social media platform, right?
Do you want the person receiving your business card to hit you up on all social platforms or just one?
What would be the most relevant platform for the type of person you’ll be giving this business card to. Try to remember that one size doesn’t necessarily fit all.
You may want to showcase your brand identity to customers through a visual social platform like Pinterest or Instagram, whereas a someone you’d like to work with may be better of connecting through Linked-in a more professional network where they can easily see your past achievements and work background.
4. Reinforcing Your Brand
When you’re handing out your business card, you want it to tie in with your brand, so that people can get a snapshot of what your business is about. If this theme then carries onto your website and social platforms, it begins to build a familiarity.
Here are some awesome examples of logo designs for a financial institute for some inspiration of amazing branding. You can even go as far to make your logo or brand image the full size of the business card, with your details on the flip side.
5. Decide on What Concept to Follow
Turning your brand values into a business card is an incredible way to build familiarity with the person you’re giving your business card too. Deciding on what concept to follow is a good idea when considering which elegant business card design tips to follow.
By thinking about the customer you’re trying to impress, you can build a story around what you want them to follow.
6. Decide on Your Specs
Remember you can’t get started without knowing where to start logistically. It’s a good idea to get an idea of what specification to follow so you know what’s important to you and your budget.
The size of your business card can vary, and the most common business cards are 84mm by 55mm. You can go bigger, but if you do, the person you give the card to is less likely to keep it and won’t fit into a wallet as easily, the go-to place for most business cards.
You can go smaller to make your card stand out, but remember a non-traditional size is going to cost you more money. Tank Prints have a site that lets you design the cards the way you want them and are a great example of how to design your specification differently.
It’s also good to think about the orientation, will your design be landscape or portrait. Portrait designs have been up and coming in the last few years and can make your card design stand out, but it can be harder to read in a cardholder.
7. Think About the Material
Most business cards are paper, but you do have other options. This is one of our favorite elegant business card design tips as it can really make you stand out from the crowd.
You can choose your card to be plastic, wood, metal, and slate. If you go with paper, you’ll need to think about thickness, coating, color and weight. All of these can affect the price.
Time to Use Our Seven Best Elegant Business Card Design Tips
Now you’ve got the info; it’s time to take charge! Stand out from the crowd and make a big impact on your audience. For more tips on how to get the most out of your business card designs, head over to our blog.
Does Your Company Logo Pass the Color Psychology Test?
Posted on December 13, 2017 by Logo Design Tips and Tricks
You’ve created a logo design for your company. You’re excited about how it looks, you’ve gotten good feedback from coworkers, and you’re ready to debut your new brand. But have you checked to make sure that it passes the color psychology test?
People tend to have the same reactions to colors, which means that marketing executives can predict how consumers will react to a logo. Every color has a different connotation, and you want to make sure that the colors in your company’s logo are sending the right message.
Read on to discover how to find the right color for your company.
1. Learn How To Pass The Color Psychology Test
Before choosing a color for your company logo, you should know what kind of message you want to send. Do you want people to see your brand as something expensive and exclusive, or do you want to seem affordable? Is your image young and fun, or stable and dependable?
The color that you choose has a huge impact on what people will think of your company. Since green is associated with nature, for example, companies usually use green if they want people to associate health or environmental friendliness with their brand.
On the other hand, companies use red if they want to give the impression of being bold or daring.
If you don’t know the psychology of color, your business could be giving the wrong message without realizing it.
2. Remember Gender
Men and women respond to color differently, so you should know who your target audience is and choose your colors with them in mind.
23% of women list purple as their favorite color, for example, while only 1% of men do. If you’re using purple to market your company towards men, you might be turning customers away without even realizing it.
Similarly, pink is still seen as an exclusively feminine color. If you’re not creating a women’s lifestyle brand or something similar, you should tread carefully using colors in shades of pink.
Colors like blue, white, silver and black are more neutral. You can even combine these colors for great results — check it out!
3. Use Emotion
How do you want people to feel when they see your logo? Emotions are a huge part of marketing, and they’re also an important aspect of the color psychology test.
Yellow inspires people to feel happy, hopeful, and optimistic. Think about the McDonald’s iconic golden arches, for example, and how their marketing always tries to inspire a feeling of happiness.
Blue, on the other hand, is a color that signals to the consumer that they can trust your brand. It’s a common color for finance and healthcare industries to use.
Design Your Logo Today
Now that you know how color can influence what people think of your business, use your new skills to create your logo. Our online logo maker helps businesses create the perfect logo for them, even without graphic design experience.
How will you use color in your business’ logo? Are there any tips that we missed? Let us know in the comments below!
How To Create The Perfect Toy Company Logo
Posted on December 13, 2017 by Logo Design Tips and Tricks
Children are all about visuals. When something pops out at them that they like, it doesn’t matter what it is. They want it!
If you’re marketing to kids, it’s not enough for the toy to look cool. All the branding has to be eye-catching.
Does your toy company have a boring logo? It won’t matter how great your product is if your logo isn’t great, too.
Every toy company needs a great logo to grab children’s attention and bring in sales. Read on to learn how to create the perfect toy company logo.
Think About Your Target Audience
Sure, you know that your target consumers are children. But, to have a really great toy company logo, you should know even more about your target audience.
This will affect other decisions you’ll make for your logo as you work on the design.
What’s the exact age group and gender you’re aiming to sell to? What will appeal to a 4-year-old might not have the same effect on a 7-year-old.
After you know the “who,” you’ll have to figure out the “how.”
How Will Your Logo Be Used?
The way your logo will be used should directly influence your design.
Will you be using your toy company logo on tiny letterhead? Maybe blown up and used on a trade show booth?
If you’re using it across a lot of platforms you have to design accordingly. The logo will have to look just as attractive at all sizes.
A certain font you want to use might only be legible at a large size. Something that looked great on a small logo could look blurry when expanded.
Using a free logo maker can be beneficial if you plan to use your logo for different things. The logo you made doesn’t look perfect blown up to a bigger size? Design another, similar logo that works for the larger size.
When designing a logo on your own, you have more freedom to play around.
Use Other Logos Only for Inspiration
When dreaming up the design for your toy company logo, look to other logos for inspiration.
Look at logos of competing brands. Take note of what you like. Ask yourself what worked for that logo.
Notice the things you would change. You can even get inspiration from logos you don’t like at all. What made that logo so unsuccessful to you?
Consider all of this new information when you’re designing. But, make sure it stops there. The last thing you want to do is make your logo too similar to someone else’s.
Logos are a huge part of brand recognition. When people look at your logo, they should only be thinking about your company.
People will be wondering what that logo reminds them of. The worst case scenario is they confuse your company with another.
The design should be unique and so should the color scheme.
Choose the Right Colors
Choosing the right colors for your logo is one of the most important aspects of design.
Color is a big part of brand recognition. Research shows that consumers make a judgment on a product with 90 seconds of viewing it. Over 60% of that judgment is impacted by the color of the product.
The right color in your logo can make or break how people judge your brand. That’s why you should take some time considering the best color scheme to use.
Go back to thinking about your target audience.
Maybe your primary consumers are 8 to 11-year-old girls. Your first thought might be to make your logo princess pink. Perhaps that’s the right choice for your brand.
But, consider if your product is something boys would enjoy as well. A pink logo will be immediately alienating to them.
Perhaps a more neutral shade would be a better choice.
Click for more inspiration for a toy company logo. It’s a great example of color usage and simple, streamlined design.
Keep it Simple and Streamlined
Think about some of the best logos you’ve seen from the biggest brands in the world: Apple, FedEx, Facebook. One thing they all have in common is that their designs are simple and sleek.
If your logo has too much going on, it will immediately look amateurish. Less is more.
But, that’s great news for you!
You don’t have to be an artist to design a logo. There’s no need to add a bunch of bells and whistles. A simple picture or the name of your company in a nice font will make the biggest impact.
Active vs. Passive Logos
How can a logo be active or passive? They’re two-dimensional, after all.
What makes a logo active or passive is the story that it tells.
Think again about the Apple logo. When it was first designed, it was just an apple. Later on, they revised the logo to have a bite taken out of it.
That’s active. Someone is eating the apple.
The Twitter logo is another example. The original logo design was the bird sitting idle. The revised logo shows the bird in flight.
The Twitter bird is flying off to send your tweet out to the world.
When thinking about your logo, ask yourself, “what’s the story I want to tell about my brand?” How can you make that story more active?
You’re Ready to Design Your Toy Company Logo
With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to designing a great logo for your toy company. Take some time to sketch and brainstorm. The more effort you put into dreaming up a great design the happier you’ll be with the final product.
Are you not sure you’ll be able to figure out how to design a logo on your own? It’s easier than you think.
Before you get started, check out this logo maker tutorial. By the time you’re finished reading you’ll know exactly what you’re doing.
Make a Splash: 5 Elements to Consider for a Fluid Pool Logo
Posted on December 04, 2017 by Logo Design Tips and Tricks
Want to design a pool logo that will catch every homeowner’s eye?
As a business owner, you’re always on the hunt for ways to attract more customers and to establish your brand image.
But before you get caught up in online marketing or promotions, it’s important to spend some time developing a professional logo. The right logo can send a clear and snappy message to consumers and establish your reputation–all in the blink of an eye!
When it comes to crafting the best pool logo, you’ll want to keep several elements in mind. Read on to learn more about what your logo should incorporate to make a splash in the pool market.
1. Choose the Right Message
Every logo is founded on a clear message, one that will stay with customers well past that first glance they give your logo.
The best message is one that reiterates what your company is all about and, as a result, will lead to a new customer relationship.
Before you plunge into crafting the ideal pool logo for your company, start by brainstorming what message you want to communicate to your existing and future customers. A great place to start is your company motto or even a statement of your vision as an organization.
If you install pools for a retiree community, you may want to emphasize an element of freedom and new horizons, for example. If you are a pool remodeling company like Ross Services for U, you’ll want to communicate ideas of renewal or change.
Sometimes it can be helpful to write down a list of keywords and to go from there. For example, your brainstorm list may have the words “facelift,” “comfort,” “sunny afternoons,” and “leisure” on it.
If you’re stumped, browse online for blogs about designing your ideal logo. There is a lot of advice out there when it comes to branding, and sometimes a quick Google search can help you ease that design block.
2. Don’t Forget the Water
Every pool logo has something to do with water. Don’t forget to integrate this element when you are designing your logo, and to match it with the message you want to share with your customers.
When coming up with ways to bring in the water element, try to think outside the box. You may want to do a Google image search of “water” to see what appears. Think also about the variety of forms that water can take, and what emotions we associate with forms of water.
For example, you’ve got water droplets, rain, waves, the ocean, pools and rivers, lakes, and puddles. Of course, each of these images is likely to communicate a different message and emotion to a viewer.
If you bring in an image of the ocean into your logo, you may invite in a sense of expansion and distance. The image of rain will naturally evoke a feeling of being drenched.
Play the matching game to choose which form of water matches the message you want to get across to viewers.
3. Assess Your Competition and Take It Up a Notch
A lot of companies deal with water, so you’ll want to pay attention to the logos of your competitors to make sure you aren’t taking their ideas. Beyond that, checking out the playing field will enable you to take it up a notch when designing your pool logo.
Analyze each logo and ask yourself what message it communicates. How effective is the image in communicating that message? Most importantly, how could you do it better?
In order to take it up a notch, you may want to go more abstract. Let’s say that your competitor has an image of a water droplet in their logo with a distinct color pattern.
This sounds great, but you could take that same water droplet and cut it in half. Or you could change it into a perfect sphere. Or you could transform that droplet into four quarters of a circle, recalling a window. See where we’re going with this?
Often times the most competitive logos are artful and unexpected. They aren’t obvious. Try to go this path when creating your clever pool logo.
4. The Simpler, The Better
No one has time to read a logo or sign that is crowded with information or isn’t straightforward. Keep your customer in mind when designing your logo and keep it simple.
Aim for a minimalist design that still has a clear message and an image. Make sure that this streamlined design can be easily replicated on business cards and outdoor signage.
Choose images that aren’t overly complicated or detailed–less really is more!
5. Bring in the Perfect Colors
If you are designing a pool logo, you’ll likely want to bring in some colors that remind the viewer of water–i.e., blue and white.
When choosing the perfect colors, however, try to avoid the standard blue and white your competitors might have in their logos. Explore different hues and variations of these colors, or bring out a striking contrast with a dark navy and a pale cerulean.
Go to a paint store and take samples of paint swatches if you have to. Choose colors that resonate with your message and image but also set you apart.
Things to Consider When Designing Your Pool Logo
You can make or break your brand image depending on which logo you choose to represent your company. Before you go about designing your pool logo, it’s important to think about some key elements.
Begin by choosing the right message you want to convey to customers with your logo. This could be a message about change if you are a pool remodeling company. It could be one of freedom or inspiration if you cater to new or retired homeowners looking to make a splash with a patio or pool addition.
Once you have your message, match the colors and the theme of your logo to this message. You’ll want to bring in the element of water no matter what, but in a way that carries your company’s message across.
Have experience designing your successful pool logo? Share your thoughts in the comments below!